The Role You Were Born to Play
The Role You Were Born to Play is the fifth episode of Glee's fourth season, and the seventy-first episode overall. This episode premiered on November 8th, 2012, after a five-week hiatus. The episode is directed by Brad Falchuk and written by Michael Hitchcock. Filming for the episode began on September 6th 2012. Plot Finn's working full-time at Burt's auto shop after his breakup with Rachel Berry, feeling like a complete loser. Artie won't let Finn to wallow in self-pity, however: Hoping to help Finn find his way again, Artie asks him to help him co-direct the high school musical production of "Grease" and refuses to take no for answer. Reluctantly, Finn agrees. At McKinley, Blaine, brokenhearted, doesn't think he has it in him to take a big role in the musical after his split from Kurt. His lament to Hopelessly Devoted To You turns into an audition, and Artie wants to cast Blaine as Danny Zuko, but Blaine's not up for a romantic leading role performance. Finn wants to back out because he doesn't feel qualified to direct, but Artie assures him the secret is surrounding himself with people who know what they're doing: he reveals that Mike and Mercedes have returned to McKinley to lend their talents as choreographer and vocal coach respectively. Will and Emma discuss their differences with a counselor, with Will making his case for Emma to join him while he's in Washington, D.C., and Emma resisting uprooting her life and career just to follow him. Their counselor - Shannon Beiste - urges them to resolve their problem through compromise. Will agrees: If Emma follows him now, he promises to follow her when she needs him to. Emma hesitantly consents. Casting Danny Zuko proves a challenge: Finn turns to the football field looking for a fresh face and spots sophomore player Ryder Lynn, a loner who nevertheless has impressive moves. Although Ryder insists he's not musically inclined, Finn challenges him to try out for the musical. Marley, hoping for the role of Sandy, learns Wade/Unique longs to play Rizzo despite the gender switch. She urges Wade to be open with the desire to play the part, but Sue confronts them with a hard-line anti-gender-confusion rant, insisting that she won't allow such casting to happen. Marley and Unique's resultant duet to P!nk's Blow Me (One Last Kiss) ''becomes their energetic audition for the musical, impressing the directors. Finn and Artie consider jukeboxes for the production, but such questionable choices further rattle Finn's confidence. Finn reveals to Ryder that, like him, when he first became involved in the glee club he didn't believe he had it within himself either, but once he started something just began to happen for him. As they duet on Foreigner's ''Juke Box Hero, Ryder's confidence and enthusiasm grow - he's ready to audition. Finn tells him that he just did. As Ryder meets Marley and they click immediately, Jake watches and broods from afar. Kitty taunts Jake about losing his girl to "the new guy with old-school Justin Bieber hair." Intent on making Marley miserable over luring Jake away, Kitty decides to go after the role of Sandy herself. Kitty tells the jealous Jake she's got the perfect audition number in mind for them, and their dancing duet on Neon Trees' Everybody Talks impresses. Although a strong dancer is needed to play Cha Cha, Tina is still hurt by her recent split from Mike and refuses to participate as long as he's involved, despite his entreaties to put aside her personal feelings. Finn lobbies for Marley as Sandy and Unique as Rizzo, and an angry Sue pulls Finn into the Principal Figgins' office, objecting to the casting of Unique. She argues that it will set the precedent for Unique to join the Cheerios, endangering Sue's bid to become the all-time winningest cheer coach in history. Sue's racked up an impressive stance of tolerance in recent years, but she's tired of McKinley being a testing ground - and, in truth, she's worried about the backlash that will come down onto Wade/Unique as a result of the controversy. Will stands behind Finn and Artie's choice, and Finn defies Sue, who warns him about "the daily nightmare that is being my enemy." In standing his ground, Finn accidentally refers to her "retarded" baby - he tries to apologize, but she silently storms out. Mike and Mercedes put the finalists for the lead roles through a last set of musical paces, testing their choreography skills with Born to Hand Jive. Kitty continues to antagonize Marley during the routine, and Jake's jealousy toward Ryder flares, but a near scuffle is avoided and all the aspirants make a good showing. Finn offers Unique the role of Rizzo and promises to deal with anyone who tries to stop them. Unique becomes emotional, telling Finn: "It sucks to never know your place... It's just nice for once to feel like I found one." The casting is revealed: Brittany S. Pierce as Cha Cha Tina Cohen-Chang as Jan Sugar Motta as Frenchy Joe Hart as Doody Sam Evans as Kenickie Wade/Unique Adams as Rizzo Blaine Anderson as Teen Angel Jake Puckerman as Putzie Ryder Lynn as Danny Zuko Marley Rose as Sandy Olsson Kitty Wilde as Patty Simcox Will finds Emma in manic homemaker overdrive, and she admits she doesn't want to go to Washington with him. She has bigger issues about what it will mean to be Will's wife, but in the end she realizes she'd rather feel close to him while he's physically far away than be close by him but feel far in spirit. They agree to make it work through the distance. Finn's finally feeling good about himself, especially about helping other people achieve their dreams. Will explains that he sees Finn as the leader the glee club needs in his absence - because it's not an official teaching position, Finn can replace him in overseeing the glee club. And, just like that, Finn finds the role he was born to play. Songs Trivia *At twenty four characters and seven words, this episode's title is the longest of all the Glee episode titles, beating out The Rocky Horror Glee Show by four characters and two words. *''Born to Hand Jive'' has the same background as You Can't Stop the Beat. *This episode aired exactly one year after The First Time and both of them are the fifth episode of their respective seasons. *This is the first episode Rachel does not appear in. *Kitty's surname is revealed to be "Wilde" in this episode. Guest Cast Guest Stars *Jayma Mays as Emma Pillsbury *Iqbal Theba as Principal Figgins *Dot-Marie Jones as Shannon Beiste *Vanessa Lengies as Sugar Motta *Adina Porter as Mrs. Delaney *Alex Newell as Wade Adams/Unique *Samuel Larsen as Joe Hart *Melissa Benoist as Marley Rose *Becca Tobin as Kitty Wilde *Blake Jenner as Ryder Lynn *Jacob Artist as Jake Puckerman Co-Stars *Ric Sarabia as Mr. Clippenger Gallery 577044_403074629746427_552533271_n.jpg Ccc1.jpg Tumblr madey0M5qU1rt9qw3o1 500.jpg Tumblr madf6qXfEI1rdjhwuo1 500.jpg tumblr_magykjfvFW1r91bhh.png tumblr_magyfvgcb01r91bhh.png tumblr_magygsFol61r91bhh.png tumblr_magyi2wsld1r91bhh.png Adad.jpg Cs.jpg Ar.jpg A3Ak9BICIAAlXGV.jpg Grease.jpg A3wD6lWCEAEKTsa.jpg IMG 2467.PNG|Mercedes is back!! IMG 2468.PNG IMG 2469.PNG|Ryder and Finn Juke Box Hero! IMG 2470.PNG IMG 2471.PNG IMG 2472.PNG|Sue making fun of Marley and Wade IMG 2474.PNG IMG 2475.PNG|Mercedes and Mike are back to McKinley. IMG 2477.PNG IMG 2478.PNG IMG 2479.PNG|Ryder and Marley IMG 2480.PNG|"Jealousy by You" IMG 2481.PNG|Coach Beiste IMG 2482.PNG IMG 2483.PNG|Mike and Mercedes Born To Hand Jive IMG 2486.PNG|Marley Born To Hand Jive IMG 2487.PNG|Mike and Brittany Born To Hand Jive IMG 2489.PNG IMG 2490.PNG 578359_351041811655196_1877486808_n.jpg BTHJ.jpg Hopelessly Devoted To You.JPG Blow Me (One Last Kiss).JPG born to hand jive baby baby.jpg 004~474.jpg 003~494.jpg 012~230.jpg 008~319.jpg 005~432.jpg 006~399.jpg 007~364.jpg 009~295.jpg 013~205.jpg 011~237.jpg 010~268.jpg BM(OLK).JPG ET.JPG JBH.JPG 014~185.jpg mercades and mike.png 416924_397612786974620_1538572183_n.jpg 542189_386801944722371_1391971331_n.jpg Grease - Roles.jpg Errors *During the bathroom scene when Sue reaches into Marley's bag, she grabs the lip balm first but when the camera goes back it shows her with a compact. *Whenever Kitty pushes Sam out of the way to get to the cast list he's seen doubled over, but in the next shot he's seen standing upright, with no real time to adjust. *Mercedes makes a snide comment to Artie because he wouldn't cast her as Maria according to her. However, Artie did in fact want to cast her as Maria together with Rachel. *During Hopelessly Devoted To You, at one point, Blaine flipped a page in the scrap book, but in the next shot, it was still the same page. *Continuing the constant confusion between the plays and the movies, Jake Puckerman is listed as playing "Putzie", when in the musical he is called Roger, and Marley is listed as playing "Sandy Olsson" as opposed to the musical's "Sandy Dumbrowski". Videos Navigational Category:Season Four Episodes Category:Episodes